Public funds down the drain

Two water projects in Dimoria lying defunct, 500 village families deprived

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DIMORIA, Aug 18: After The Sentinel blew the lid off how Dispur is literally pouring public money down the drain in a report on August 2, about a water supply scheme gone defunct in Tamulikuchi in Jorabat, another similar incident has been reported from the same Dispur constituency.

Like that stillborn Tamulikuchi project from which villagers are yet to get a drop of water, the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department had also spent crores of rupees in building two drinking water projects in Kamalajhari and Soigaon area. But unfortutely for the last two years, the people of the area have not received a single drop of water from the project.

Earlier, some lower level employees of the PHE department used to visit the two project sites. But for the past several months, they have not bothered to come, as a result of which both the water supply projects have gone to seed.

Due to this utter neglect by the department, the project sites bear a desolate look. The water tanks are overgrown with weeds. Meanwhile, with no hope of getting get fresh drinking water, villagers in the area are now drinking water from ponds and wells in the area. Talking to this correspondent, several villagers alleged that no senior PHE officials ever visited the projects in the last 2-3 years to conduct an inspection. Pointing out that more than 500 rural families would have benefitted from these two projects, the villagers have demanded a probe into the matter.

At a time when Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is trumpeting his ‘developed’ Assam from the rooftops, such pictures of defunct projects expose his government’s lie. Photographs of the two Dimoria water supply projects speak volumes of how precious funds meant for development of backward rural areas, are being crimilly wasted without any accountability. If this is the state of affairs so close to Dispur, one shudders at the wastage and misappropriation of public money under various welfare schemes in different parts of the State.

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